


Found All My Masks Were Stolen

by the_rck



Series: To Us a Thorn, To Them a Rose [1]
Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Comic Book Science, Established Relationship, Ethical Dilemmas, Multi, Multiple versions of characters, Pregnancy, Superpowers, Supervillains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:47:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Will recognized the voice, but the cadences weren’t right. He opened his eyes and tried to lift his head. “Maj?”“Stay flat. It’ll be easier. And… I am, but I’m not the one you know.”Will thought there was more than a hint of bitterness in the last sentence. Right. He’d started to say that they weren’t in Kansas any more after the lab dissolved around them and the corridor replaced it. Some things had looked familiar, but-- "Where am I?"There was an almost imperceptible hesitation before the woman who might or might not be Magenta answered. “Sky High. Used to be anyway, and nobody’s renamed it.”
Relationships: Warren Peace/Will Stronghold/Layla Williams
Series: To Us a Thorn, To Them a Rose [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901251
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Found All My Masks Were Stolen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gammarad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts).



> Title from Kahlil Gibran's "How I Became a Madman (Prologue)."
> 
> Contains: references to torture, name confusion due to alternate dimension versions of characters, an extremely slow motion apocalypse in one universe, references to ecoterrorism, morally gray characters on all sides.
> 
> This story crosses over two of my other series, [All the Faces We Were](https://archiveofourown.org/series/879468) and [Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1039095), with the characters from All the Faces We Were accidentally ending up in the Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion universe. The story's from the point of view of the All the Faces We Were characters, and they know nothing about the Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion backstory when they arrive.
> 
> In other words, lack of familiarity with All the Faces We Were will be confusing. Lack of familiarity with Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion shouldn't be.
> 
> I've temporarily put both of those series on this story so that subscribers will receive notice of the update. My plan is to remove them, later, and simply link from here and from the series descriptions for all three stories. 
> 
> I have ideas for sequels to this one, and they may get written. If they do, they'll be posted as part of the To Us a Thorn, To Them a Rose series rather than as part of either of the other series.

Will woke with a definite sense that something had gone badly wrong. He was lying facedown on what smelled like a hospital bed-- a faint whiff of bleach from the pillowcase under him and a lot of smells from the room around him that said ‘medical’ when taken in combination. His back hurt, not just his back but the back of his head, his ass, the backs of his legs. He was pretty sure he was on good drugs, though, because that much of him hurting probably ought to be worse.

Yes, actually, it should. He remembered flames coming from behind. He remembered Warren turning, an instant too late, and stepping between Will and the fire. Will didn’t remember hitting the floor, and he was pretty sure he must have.

He felt the familiar weight of the suppressor on his right wrist and a lighter weight on his left. Metal, he thought. He tugged and found that he couldn’t move that arm far.

“It’s mostly because the other guy said you might have weird drug reactions.”

Will recognized the voice, but the cadences weren’t right. He opened his eyes and tried to lift his head. “Maj?”

“Stay flat. It’ll be easier. And… I am, but I’m not the one you know.”

Will thought there was more than a hint of bitterness in the last sentence. Right. He’d started to say that they weren’t in Kansas any more after the lab dissolved around them and the corridor replaced it. Some things had looked familiar, but-- “Where am I?” For a moment, he thought that it wasn’t nearly as bad as after Warren had drugged him to put the first suppressor on. Then he realized that that was only because this didn’t involve Warren and Layla betraying him.

There was an almost imperceptible hesitation before the woman who might or might not be Magenta answered. “Sky High. Used to be anyway, and nobody’s renamed it.”

Will heard movement.

“I can get you ice chips or swabs. We put an IV in you, so you’re not dehydrated.”

“Ice chips.” Will thought he could let a stranger give him ice. He was a lot less sure about having her stick sponges into his mouth. “Please.” He tried to focus. “Were the others hurt?”

Another hesitation. “Not really. The kid’s fine, but your Layla got a bit banged up, and our Warren was really freaked by yours.”

Something in Will relaxed at this woman describing Selena as a ‘kid.’ The girl was fifteen, and a lot of places wouldn’t have considered her a child. Magenta’s voice calling the girl a ‘kid’ probably meant that Selena was safe. Will’s right hand curled into a fist.

“Our Layla’s working on something that she thinks will heal you faster.” Fingers tapped on Will’s suppressor. “This. What’s this?” She sounded as if she really didn’t know and really thought that it might be dangerous.

Will forced a laugh. “It’s symbolic,” he said. That almost wasn’t a lie. He was certain that he could take it off. Mostly certain. He’d never tested it. “Anyone who sees it knows I don’t have powers.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, either. “As long as I wear it, everybody knows Warren and Layla will kill them if they hurt me.” Which also wasn’t a lie. “Should I call you Magenta? Or do you have some other name you’d prefer?” With a little luck, the question would distract her from the suppressor.

If she didn’t know what it was, she couldn’t guess what might happen if it came off. That Warren and Layla hadn’t either told these strangers what it was or removed it completely meant that they weren’t sure of their ground.

“I’m good with Magenta.”

He heard her moving around. “Where are the others?”

“Ice chip.”

Will felt the cold on his right hand and pinched his fingers around it. Getting it to his mouth was a little challenging, but it did prove that he could move a bit. He didn’t like the way the i.v. in his right elbow felt when he bent his arm, but he could live with that.

“They’re in one of the detention rooms,” Magenta said. “All three of them. Ethan thought that it would be a bad idea to put the girl anywhere else. She’s not young enough or old enough not to try something stupid.” Again the hesitation. “Also, none of us speak whatever-the-hell language she’s rattling on in.”

Will didn’t believe that Magenta-- in any universe-- would fail to recognize Spanish. That she’d pretend she didn’t told Will a great deal. He just wasn’t sure if she knew it or not. She wanted him to underestimate her, and she didn’t want to deal with the outside world.

And it was really fucking weird that they had detention rooms but not individual power suppressors.

“None of them needed more than ibuprofen.”

Will hoped that she wasn’t lying. He didn’t know enough yet to be sure, so it was a gamble, but-- probably-- he wouldn’t still have the suppressor on if any of the other three were badly hurt. Warren had to have been at least a bit okay to tell them that Will might have weird drug reactions. This not-Magenta woman couldn’t have made that up, not without mind reading.

And, if she could read minds, she wouldn’t be asking him about the suppressor.

But if his lovers and Selena weren’t hurt or in danger of being hurt, he needed more information. The not being in Kansas any more part was still a problem, kind of a huge one. At the very least, they were going to need resources for Selena to tinker with her device. Current evidence didn’t lead Will to think she’d get the opportunity here.

Also, Magenta might tell a powerless Will Stronghold things that Layla and Warren-- very obviously dangerous people-- weren’t going to be able to discover. Will had figured out how to look harmless within three weeks of arriving at Warren's secret base. It was a survival skill.

“Why did-- It was your Warren who burned me, right?”

“Will and Warren… aren’t friends.” Magenta’s voice had the flatness of long buried pain.

“Will betrayed you?” For a moment, he hoped not, but if Will hadn’t things got much uglier.

“Warren did.” Magenta gave Will another ice chip. “None of us sidekicks can fly, so--” She didn’t finish the sentence.

Will didn’t need her to.

“None of us will go into the girls’ locker room now.”

Will wondered if she expected him to fill in the gaps. He could. He was. He really hated the picture that was forming. “I’m sorry,” he said. All it took was Warren being someone else. He could so very easily have been.

“You didn’t do it.” She sighed. “And our Will tried the night of Homecoming. I could hate him if he hadn’t, but he did. We didn’t know that for years, though, and…”

And she did hate Will. The other Will. She hated him because he’d survived, and she… She worked for Warren.

“Warren,” Will said, “my Warren-- He and Layla stopped Royal Pain. I was stupid about Gwen, but they forgave me.”

“So Warren’s the difference?” She sounded more than a little bitter.

Will tried to shrug and ended up unable to speak for several seconds as real pain broke through whatever drugs they’d given him.

At least that meant he didn’t have to answer.

“They-- your Warren and your Layla-- surrendered when Zach offered medical treatment for you.”

“Flashfire,” Will said. “My Warren goes by Flashfire. Call him that. It’ll be easier.”

“And your Layla?”

“She says super names are bullshit.”

Magenta laughed, a short, sharp sound that made Will think that she recognized her Layla in his.

Will cleared his throat. “Jetstream and the Commander?”

“They’re eight now. They don’t know that’s who they were. Warren kept two dozen babies and kind of… He gave them different names. We’ve got a few years before the kids start to come into powers.”

Eight years since Homecoming. That made this Magenta almost a decade younger than Will was. Will also didn’t like the idea of a villain raising kids.

“What is Warren going to--” Will wasn’t quite willing to put that question into words, but bad things happening to eight year olds would change his goals considerably.

“They’re safer up here,” Magenta said firmly. “No one is going to hurt them or force them into anything. Even if Warren wanted to, none of us would let him. He cares about us. He cares about the kids. Anyone else… They only matter to him as much as they matter to us.”

Which was an important bit of information for Will to have. It was probably the only reason Will and his lovers were alive. On his own, this other Warren might or might not have harmed Selena. 

Selena was protected because Magenta looked at her and saw a child.

“We didn’t mean to come here,” Will said. He thought that was pretty safe. “Selena’s good at making things, but she’s not so great at knowing what they’ll do.” Will had been trying to teach her how to control that part of her power. He was pretty sure that it came from being scared of what might happen. This was not going to help. He sighed. “What now?”

“I’m not sure.” Magenta sounded tired. “Warren’s-- Is-- Is Flashfire sane?”

Will laughed. He kept it small but tried to make it as genuine as he could. “I’m biased, but… He does management while Layla sets policy. He thought of getting us a _dentist_.”

“Management?” Magenta sounded frankly disbelieving. “Zach does that.”

“Zach does freelance research. Layla gets special rates. Ethan went into medicine. You-- Our Magenta went into hacking-- aboveboard hacking. Sort of. Layla gets special rates from her, too.”

“What about… Flashfire’s parents? Did his mother die when he was little or something?”

There was something in that that mattered a lot to Magenta, but Will wasn’t sure what it was. “Barron Battle’s still in prison.” It had to be about Warren’s mother. “I don’t know Laurel well, but--”

“ _Laurel_? Not Sylvia?”

“Laurel,” Will confirmed. “I don’t think there are any Sylvias in Warren’s family.”

“Your world is really fucking lucky.” The bitterness was there in Magenta’s voice again. “Sylvia Peace was-- She could fuck with minds.”

Will suspected that Laurel could, too, but he wasn’t going to say that. He didn’t have any evidence to support his guess except that Warren had to have had a way to let Will leave and couldn’t let him leave with memory of where the base was.

And it made sense of Laurel not moving into the base. Her on the run alone wasn’t a sensible thing unless she was somehow useful that way.

“Laurel makes force fields,” Will said. It had the virtue of being true. “She’s got parents, too, and some cousins and a younger sister.”

Magenta didn’t say anything for what seemed like a very long time. “You should sleep. If Layla comes up with something to heal you, you’ll be able to eat a bit more easily then.”

Will didn’t much want to sleep, but he did need to heal. And he wasn’t going to get anything out of Magenta for a while. “Might as well,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.” He rattled the chain attached to the cuff on his left wrist.

She didn’t offer to open the cuff before she left.

He couldn’t believe that she’d left him alone, so he assumed she hadn’t.

“Emergency medicine?” The voice was very definitely Ethan’s. “I suppose that’s useful.” He sounded thoughtful and gentler than Magenta had.

Will wasn’t willing to assume that Ethan was less dangerous.

“For what it’s worth,” Ethan said, “the Will from our universe is invulnerable. Warren could blast him all day and only burn his clothes. Will can fly, too, so he _could_ turn up on the island if he wanted to make trouble. He never has.” There was a little regret in Ethan’s voice, and Will wondered if it was feigned. “By the time he knew we were alive, he also knew about the kids.”

Will didn’t have an answer for any of that.

“I’m pretty sure that your-- that Flashfire-- knows more about using his powers than Warren does. I also suspect that… your Layla knows less. She only does plants, doesn’t she?”

Will hesitated then said, “Well, no one ever locked her in concrete for-- How long was it?”

“About ten months.” Ethan didn’t add anything for a while. Then, he said, “That thing on your right wrist-- What happens when it comes off?”

Will tried to find a way not to lie. “It would mean they’re divorcing me.”

“Yeah.” Ethan didn’t sound as if he bought that. “You got really nice matching rings, too.”

Will ran his left thumb over the ring on his left ring finger. It consisted of three intertwined strands of silver, wrapping three gem chips-- one ruby, one emerald, and one diamond. “Warren wanted rings,” he said because it was true and might divert attention from the rest. “Warren wants things to be normal.”

Ethan laughed. There wasn’t the same sort of bitterness in it as had been in Magenta’s voice, but he didn’t laugh the way that the Ethan Will knew did. When Ethan stopped laughing, he said, “Our Warren never quite figured out normal.”

Neither of them said anything for a while. Ethan broke the silence. “When you went down, your Layla screamed at Warren. She said, ‘He doesn’t have powers, you asshole!’ It’s interesting, looking back, because she _knew_ Warren thought you did.”

Will felt cold.

“Warren and Magenta are too upset to have thought it through yet.” Ethan sounded detached. “Warren will certainly get there eventually. If-- _If_ \--I’m guessing right, I really don’t want him to have that thing on your wrist. The status quo sucks, but it’ll be so much worse if only the bad guys get to keep their powers.”

“They wouldn’t be able to keep the technology secret forever.” Will knew that that was an admission that Ethan was right.

“Technology?” Ethan’s voice was sharp. “Not magic? The detention rooms use magic.”

“Magic started vanishing at the beginning of the twentieth century. Technopaths started showing up before that, but a lot of them weren’t spotted as supers.”

“Do you know how to make the devices?”

“No.” Will hesitated. “Flashfire knows some basics, but…”

Selena knew. Selena could make a suppressor. Selena was fifteen, and Will wasn’t selling her for that.

“If you had the same powers as our Will, you could get your people to the ground.” It wasn’t quite a question. “The girl would be safe enough here if you can’t carry three. Warren wouldn’t cross the four of us on that.”

That, Will recognized as an opening offer for bargaining. “I need to get her home to her mother,” he said. He took a deep breath then added, “It’s been a while, but I can pretty surely carry three.” He let himself laugh. “I lifted Sky High once, the night of our Homecoming.”

“I’ll trade a sleep-ray and look at a map of the renovations and of the routes the guards follow for you taking that thing and your knowledge to an address downside. They'll probably help you further but no promises.”

Will blinked. That was blunter than he expected the offer to be, more abrupt.

Ethan didn’t quite laugh. “We’re ending up there anyway, aren’t we?”

“You’re making assumptions about who I am.” Will thought he needed to give that warning.

“Am I? I’m not sure I am. I don’t think I’d trust your husband and wife without you, but _you_ trust them enough to wear that thing.”

Will sighed. “Eco-terrorism. Workers’ rights. Economic justice. Good intentions; still murder. I couldn’t help. I couldn’t walk away. I really couldn’t fight them.”

“Ah.” Ethan sounded as if that made sense to him.

“Layla was always going that way. Eventually.” Will thought that Ethan needed to know that. “Unless she’s different here--?”

“She’ll get there eventually,” Ethan said. “Just… Warren accidentally gave her a hard push. Our Layla--” Ethan’s inhalation was audible. “Mold,” he said softly. “Mildew. Fungus. She can engineer them-- plants, too-- on the fly. Trying to help you is going to make her admit she can work animal cells. Zach says her super name ought to be 'Natural Causes.'” Something in Ethan's voice said that he agreed with the name. "Zach thinks it's a joke."

Will felt like he’d been gut punched.

Ethan sounded more sad than he did frightened when he talked about Layla, and the fear was clearly more for Layla than of Layla. It sounded more like a warning than a threat. Either Ethan was trusting him, or Ethan was lying to him.

Will didn’t think Ethan was lying to him. Will was pretty sure that Ethan was warning him about what Will’s own wife might be able to do. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that they haven’t talked?”

“They haven’t yet. Get her off Sky High fast enough, and they won’t.” Ethan sighed. “You going to take that damned thing off or not?”

“I--” Will didn’t want to explain. Will had to explain. “I’m only a prisoner if I can’t take it off.”

“Yeah.” Ethan wasn’t buying. “And Layla went for that.”

Will almost laughed. “Warren drugged me to get it on and then asked me if I’d rather come along with them or stay behind. Layla tried to rip his head off when I passed out.”

“I’m sorry,” Ethan said in a tone that made Will think that he actually understood what he was asking for. “For what it’s worth, I’m not sure you’re getting home. You go where I’m asking, do what I’m asking, you’ll have a chance to get your feet under you. They’re good people.”

Will supposed that how much they were going to need Ethan’s ‘good people’ depended on what Selena understood about what she’d done to get them here. He wasn’t ready to write off the possibility of going home yet.

Selena couldn’t even try as long as she was sitting in a detention room, and Will didn’t want to try raising a child in the sort of place this world sounded like it was. Layla might or might not be pregnant, but they’d been trying.

Will closed his eyes and took four slow breaths before he spoke. “Poison ivy. One. Two. Three.” He felt the suppression ease. The band loosened then opened. He lifted his arm out of the suppressor.

He hadn’t been sure that his burns would heal when his powers came back, so feeling them start to was a huge relief. He’d have been able to move without making them worse, but it would have hurt like hell. “Oh, good,” he said as he started pushing himself off the table.

The restraint on his left wrist snapped without Will even remembering that it was there.

Ethan-- this world’s Ethan-- looked different from the man Will knew. He looked younger and scrawnier, a lot more like he had at fourteen.

Will stared for a moment then realized that he didn’t even have a hospital gown. He grabbed the sheet he’d been lying on. “Sorry!” he said.

Ethan started laughing. When he stopped, he said, “I look different there-- where you’re from-- right?”

Will nodded.

“Things… happened after Homecoming.” Ethan shook his head. “I heal-- regenerate myself, not other people. Going in and out of puddle form healed me, probably always had, and I just never noticed because I wasn’t hurt. I might’ve gotten to this eventually, years later, but… Warren shoved me, too.”

Will heard what Ethan wasn’t saying. “I’m sorry.”

“Unless you can travel time in addition to across universes--?” 

Will shook his head.

Ethan shrugged one shoulder and changed the subject. “Clothes are a little harder to manage than the weapon or the map.” He waved a hand at his belt, and Will saw a weapon that looked a lot like a Medulla classic.

Probably it was. Probably it was way too late to tell Ethan that Medulla had been able to reverse the effects of the Pacifier. Given the things Magenta hadn’t mentioned, Will suspected that she didn’t know where the Pacifier had spent the years while Gwen Grayson was growing up again.

Will considered the probable options for clothing and the likelihood that going after them would spend time he didn’t have. “I’d rather not have Selena see me flapping in the breeze,” he said, “but that’s not worth leaving any of them here.” He twisted the sheet to give himself a hip to shoulder cross-body sash, tied it tightly, then sealed the suppressor around it so that he wasn’t as likely to lose it.

Ethan tossed him the gun then offered him a printed map. “Weight bearing walls are in red,” he said. “Zach made this so that he didn’t have to keep explaining to the groundside architects what they could and couldn’t change. Guards patrolling here and here and here” He traced corridors. “I think your best route is this way--” His finger tapped the lines that represented three walls. “It’ll be noisy, but there are enough people around that sneaking isn’t going to help you.”

“The address?” Will asked. He thought it told him a lot about this Ethan that he hadn’t put that part first.

Ethan smiled and gave Will a street address in Caracas. Ethan repeated it twice more before Will was sure he had it memorized, but neither of them suggested writing it down. Once that was done, Ethan met Will’s eyes and said, “You’re going to have to punch me. Hard enough to knock me out.” Will opened his mouth to protest, but Ethan raised a hand. “Healing, remember? Getting punched through a wall is better than what Warren will do if he thinks I helped you.”

Will considered that for a moment then nodded a reluctant agreement. He was pretty sure that Ethan understood pain. “Does he--? Does he... often?”

Ethan’s expression became more distant. He shook his head. “Not since I was fourteen. None of the others since then, either. It’s just… not a thing I’ll forget. Took him a long time to admit I wouldn’t scar.” He squared his shoulders. “Been in fights since, too, but that was worse. Also… I’m not sure what the other three would do if Warren… Well. Might push Layla off the tightrope she’s on.” He wobbled a hand. “She falls? We’ll probably survive. Warren might not, and she won’t be Layla any more, but…” He shrugged. “Magenta guts Warren to protect me? Well, that leaves Barron Battle out there and pissed.” He sighed. “Zach might not forgive me for risking it. He’d understand, but he might not forgive me.”

Will thought that Layla might not have followed that, but he’d had some practice in the last couple of years with understanding things not quite said. The flat assumption under all of it was that Ethan wasn’t leaving Sky High. Will hadn’t offered and wouldn’t-- even though four wouldn’t be much more unwieldy than three-- because Ethan had already decided.

And the address in Caracas… Ethan was working for-- with? --someone else, someone he considered worth the risks he was taking. If Will, with so little information, understood how big the risks were, Ethan who’d lived it all must also have weighed everything. If Ethan left Sky High, he’d no longer be able to help those allies in the same way. 

That wasn’t why Ethan was staying, but it was something Will thought he’d considered.

Will nodded. “Okay.” He glanced around the room, trying to decide the best angle for punching Ethan into a wall. There was a lot of equipment in the way. Ethan might heal, but Will thought that getting electrocuted would be worse than going through the wall. Will narrowed his eyes as he tried to guess where the wiring was. “No gas pipes through the walls?”

Ethan’s expression told Will that he hadn’t thought about that. It also told Will that Ethan didn’t know. Magenta had said that Warren had kept twenty four babies. There were children on the island.

“Right,” Will said. “How about I hit you with the bed I was lying on? I’m pretty sure that won’t leak methane or electrocute you.” Will mentally discarded Ethan’s suggested route to where Warren and Layla were. He could fly, and he was bulletproof-- Out the window and back in through the roof, right outside the room he needed. Ten seconds, tops.

Ethan nodded.

Will was really impressed by the fact that Ethan barely flinched as the bed came down. 

The window Will needed was shut, so Will threw the bed at it. Then, after considering for a moment, he fired the gun once, at the wall. Ethan had said sleep ray and hadn’t-- Will thought-- lied about anything else, so Will wasn’t surprised not to get a visible effect, but he also thought that a test fire made it seem more like he hadn’t known what the damned thing did. 

Though, if anyone was recording what went on in the room, Ethan was utterly fucked anyway. Will really hoped Ethan had thought about that. He probably had. He’d been living with a supervillain for almost a decade, and Ethan’s Warren wasn’t anything at all like Will’s Warren.

Will flew out through the hole the bed had made. He had the sleep ray in one hand and his other gripping his improvised sash to keep the suppressor from sliding around. After a little consideration, he came down through the roof feet first with the gun and suppressor both right over his head. He thought that minimized the chances of debris hitting either.

Will could likely manage without the gun, even with the detention room, but he didn’t think it would be fair to trade Ethan a damaged suppressor for getting bashed with a bed.  
_______

Both Warrens were in the detention room. Will was almost certain he knew which was which, but the cost of being wrong would be too high, so he shot both of them from the doorway.

As both Warrens crumpled, Layla caught the one Will had thought was his-- theirs-- so he assumed he’d guessed right. She checked their Warren’s pulse at his throat then nodded. She gave Will a small smile and said, “I think we have time for you to steal some clothes.” She spoke Spanish so that Selena would understand.

Selena giggled. She was giving Will a very frank once over that would have embarrassed him more if he hadn’t been sure that she thought he was _old_.

Mostly, Will was glad that Selena wasn’t too frightened to laugh at him. “Get yourselves out of that room first,” Will responded, also in Spanish. “There are guards out here who might be close enough in size. Selena can use the gun while I grab something. If we have time.”

“Do we need to take the doppelganger?” Layla asked as she and Selena dragged Warren toward the door.

“I don’t think so.” Will turned his back to the door and looked up and down the hall. “The people I talked to didn’t give me the impression there were any big secrets.” He heard pounding feet heading their way. “There are kids in the building, so don’t bring down anything you don’t have to.”

He let Selena take the gun. While they were both touching it, he could feel her power flowing through the damned thing. He’d missed feeling things like that.

“Old,” she said.

“Not really,” Will told her as he turned to look at the guards he’d shot. “Just the way last year’s laptop is ‘old.’”

“Last year’s laptop _is_ old!” Selena’s words held every bit of the teenage judgment that Will hoped to hear. If the experience was upsetting her, it didn’t show in her voice or behavior.

Will glanced into the detention room. The other Warren’s trousers would probably fit better than anything these guards out here were wearing, but getting the doppelganger’s things would take more time. He slung his Warren over one shoulder then picked up the guard he thought was nearest his size and said, “Outside is about fifty yards behind us.”

Layla’s powers would work better-- and do less damage to the building-- if they were outside.

Will started trying to get the guard’s shoes off as he led the way toward what he hoped was the nearest exit. He didn’t have much luck because he could only really use the hand attached to the arm that was holding the guard.

Layla’s power unfurled behind them. 

Will hadn’t seen her fight in the last couple of years, but he was pretty sure that she was weaving a screen to make sure she and Selena didn’t get shot in the back.

Once they got out the door, Layla forced the surrounding foliage to shield them, and Will decided that getting the guard’s trousers was going to take too long. Instead, he ripped off the guard’s shirt and made a partial loincloth out of it. He’d just make sure they landed somewhere in the wilderness and figure things out from there. He hoped Layla could make him something usable when she wasn’t distracted by getting shot at.

“Vines,” he said. “It’s not that I can’t manage the weight; it’s that you’re awkward shapes and kind of… There’s not enough friction to stick you on.”

Layla gave him a look and waved to where she had vines growing.

Will reddened. He should have known she’d think of that. He and Selena got Warren tied to Will’s right and Selena to Will’s left.

Will trusted Layla to make sure he didn’t drop her; she climbed on his back then wrapped more vines around both of them.

“Go!” she yelled.

Will stayed close to the ground for the first dozen yards then flew left before soaring. Getting under the island was the goal, but he didn’t think he could do that fast enough to keep his passengers from getting shot, so up with a lot of zig zagging seemed like the wisest option.

He hoped, though, that he’d be able to get Selena more accustomed to flying. She mostly missed the rest of them when her stomach turned inside out, but it wasn’t a thing Will wanted to risk again.

He wasn’t actually sure where they were, so he hovered underneath the school for about five minutes while he and Layla tried to get their bearings. They ended up landing in a wooded area near the northern-most end of the Appalachian Trail. 

"We're lucky it's summer," Layla told Will and Selena as she tugged them into the underbrush to one side of the trail and started growing the foliage around them so that they couldn’t be seen from overhead or from the trail.

"Don't overdo it," Will said. "The trail's in good shape, so people must still come here a lot."

"Probably not mostly naked people." Layla eyed him. "Not that I don't appreciate the view," she murmured in English.

Will sighed. "Not the time, Layla." He glanced at Selena then pointed at the sleep-ray she was still holding. "That's probably trackable," he said in Spanish. "There might be trackers on anything else we're carrying." He untied the sheet and wrapped it around his waist.

Selena looked more embarrassed by the sheet around Will's waist than she had about him being naked.

Will thought it might mean that she thought they were actually safe.

She gave the sleep-ray her full attention. "I'll turn it off," she said. "I could track the energy, so they probably can. You should take the power cell out of the suppressor, too. I can shield it but not while it's still in the device."

"I can grow something better for you to wear," Layla said.

Will considered the plants around them and sighed. When he'd hoped for Layla to make him clothes, he'd been thinking of rainforest resources rather than North American scrub. "You'd have to mutate this stuff pretty far if it's not going to be unpleasant to wear. That'll take a long time and leave evidence that we were here."

Layla nodded. "We'll find aloe for the sunburn you're going to have. That's easier."

Her assumption that he'd burn told Will that she'd forgotten a lot about his powers. Or still didn't quite accept that the suppressor wasn't going back on his wrist. He didn't want to discuss it in front of Selena, so he didn't say anything.

Warren took another half an hour to wake. When he did, he looked like he’d been on a serious spring break bender. He also looked pissed as hell and ready to burn something-- or someone-- to ash. He relaxed a little bit when he saw Will and a little more when he took inventory and realized that Layla and Selena were there, too.

“You know more about this sort of thing than I do,” Will said. “How long do we need to wait before we move on? How long can we afford to wait? As far as we can tell, nobody’s searching for us, but it could be they’re still gathering resources.”

Warren pinched the bridge of his nose. “How long has it been?”

“About an hour since I came down through the roof,” Will told him. “I’m pretty sure that none of them really wanted to keep us. They just weren’t sure what else they _could_ do since you two were clearly dangerous.” Now that he was saying it, he knew that, if there was pursuit, it wouldn’t come from Sky High.

The other Warren would tell his father. Barron Battle--

“Warren, what would your father do on getting word of people from another universe?” Will knew the question wasn’t clear. “Magenta used past tense about the other Warren’s mother-- her name was Sylvia not Laurel-- but Barron Battle still seems to be a thing.”

“He… told us some stuff,” Warren said. He looked at Layla, and Will realized that there were things the two of them were deciding whether or not to tell him.

“Don’t,” he said. “We’re in enemy territory, and Selena and I both need to know as much as you do.” His left hand circled his right wrist. “I promised to deliver the suppressor to an address in Caracas in exchange for the sleep-ray. We’ll figure out... the rest... after we get home.” He made his voice as confident as he could when he talked about getting home.

He was pretty sure that Warren and Layla didn’t believe his optimism, but Warren followed Will’s glance at Selena.

She did believe it.

Warren nodded minutely. “The world’s Balkanized. Most of the old nations don’t matter.”

“Just what the local warlords want.” Layla made a face as if the words tasted bad.

Will suspected that it wasn’t anything like that simple. He raised his eyebrows. “That doesn’t answer my question about Barron Battle.”

“He’ll want to fight me.” Warren sighed. “He likes a challenge. He wouldn’t fight his son, but I’m not his son. Close enough to be fascinating but not--” He shook his head as if the sentence wasn’t going anywhere appealing.

Will got it, and he suspected that Layla did, too. Flashfire wasn’t a person with any obligatory protections from Barron Battle. It just wasn’t something they had words for.

Will sighed. “Things they said to me-- I don’t know how noticeable it was.” He raised his eyebrows in query. “Ethan and Magenta were both very clear that their Warren is unstable. Psychologically, I mean.” His lips curled a little.

Layla laughed, and Warren poked her arm, saying, “Hey!”

Will had known they’d understand the hint of teasing. He’d wanted to see Layla smile because it would reassure him and because it would reassure Selena. When adults were silly, kids, even fifteen year old kids, assumed things were fundamentally okay.

Selena said, “Unstable how?”

Unstable, Will thought, like attacking us before he quite realized who we were. “Some different choices he seems to have made.” He reminded himself that Selena knew what supervillains were capable of doing. “He started things with his sidekicks by torturing them.” He wasn’t sure Selena would understand, so he looked at Warren. “Physical and psychological. Ten months imprisoned in one of the locker rooms. Burns meant to leave scars.” He wondered if Warren and Layla would understand that none of Warren’s sidekicks were stable, either.

Warren looked queasy.

Will was pretty sure that Warren was thinking about what it would feel like to burn his friends. The power usage side of it would be easy; the willingness to go there, not so much. There was a reason that Layla fought Jetstream while Warren took on the Commander. Warren’s powers could hurt Will’s mother very badly, and Warren liked both of the older Strongholds.

Warren probably didn’t realize that the locker room had been more damaging than the burns. He’d get it if Will explained, but Will wouldn’t because Warren and Layla both needed to forget the price Will had accepted for staying with them. This was too close to that.

If Warren asked, Will would say that the burns the other Warren had given him hurt worse than anything else he’d ever experienced. Will would be lying. The burns had been acute. The pain of Will’s compromised ethics, of what he let Warren and Layla do, was chronic.

Will wasn't sure he could make those sacrifices a second time, not by choice.

Will really didn’t want to go home. Whatever this world was, however bad it was, he could have his lovers _and_ his powers here because the things Layla would want to fix weren’t going to have non-violent solutions.

“They said that the kids Gwen turned into babies are eight now,” Will said, changing the subject. “So the timing-- We’re older than our doppelgangers. Unless they were all somehow a lot older at Homecoming.” He looked at the ground. “Their Will never made it to Homecoming. Magenta said he tried, but she was also really bitter about the whole thing.”

It occurred to Will that Selena didn’t know anything at all about Homecoming or even Sky High. Explaining that broke the tension a bit, and after, Warren announced that he was well enough to go after supplies.

Will considered that. “Yeah, no. You’ve got the face of a known villain.”

“And you’ve got the face of a known hero,” Layla told Will. “You’ll attract as much attention. I’ll go. I know what size clothing you need, and I know what we need for a better flying harness.” She sighed. “Caracas. Why not Boston or New York City or--? Anything in the continental US would be closer.”

Will shrugged. “It’s not that far, not as long as I can fly.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Warren twitch and knew that Warren had finally caught up far enough to realize the long term problem of Will having removed the suppressor.

Maybe Warren would see a solution. The one Warren used last time wasn’t going to work this time because Will had his powers and couldn’t just let Warren put the suppressor on him again. Well, he could, but it would be a different sort of decision than waking up with one on his wrist and letting it stay there had been.

"I'd suggest going to the cabin." Will went on talking as if he hadn't noticed Warren's reaction. "I just-- If the other Will hasn't changed the passwords--"

"He might not have," Layla interrupted. "Or, well... If he's like you, he'd still want Layla and Zach to be able to get in, even if he shouldn't leave that weakness."

Warren looked like he thought that made a lot of sense.

Will considered that for several seconds then shook his head. "He'd want them to have somewhere to go. It just wouldn't be there. The cabin-- He wouldn't be the only one depending on the defenses, and, by now, he knows that there are two people on Sky High that could get in without any sort of password. Mom and Dad both could, just based on their DNA. If the other Will didn't change the protocol, I mean. _He_ probably needs a password to get in himself." Will rubbed the back of his head. "There'll be _kids_ there."

"I can go," Selena said. "To get clothes, I mean. You said there's a difference in time; even if I exist here, I'm probably too young to have powers. Nobody'll recognize me." She put one hand on the dormant sleep-ray device. "We can make this look like I made it from scrap, and I can rob a few stores."

Will really didn't like that, but before he could object, Layla said, "The two of us then. I stay hidden."

"It's a long walk," Will said.

"Steal a car," Selena said. "Easy." She raised one hand and wiggled her fingers.

Will supposed it was good that she wasn't scared any more.  
_______

It wasn't that simple, of course, but it really wasn't hard. Will was the only one who particularly cared about the moral wrongness of stealing, so Layla and Selena went for the first soft targets they saw. Layla was good at that part, and it was, Layla pointed out, something Selena needed to learn.

Will was just glad to have something to put on that wasn't a sheet.

Warren, Layla, and Selena took turns driving their various stolen cars southwest along back roads because Will didn't feel safe driving, not after he accidentally ripped a door off of the first car Selena stole. At first, they'd only meant to get far enough from Sky High to make tracking Will's flight harder, but Layla and Warren wanted to see more from ground level.

"We need more intel," Layla said. "We won't get it while we're fighting or while we're hundreds of feet up."

"Also," Warren said, "I'm worried about ground defenses. If supers are fighting... Well, there are a lot of people who can fly. They're mostly not bulletproof."

Some of the small towns they passed through looked fine to Will, but others had clear signs of unrepaired damage from superpowered attacks. Warren said that that could mean nobody could afford the repairs. Layla said it might also mean that whoever ran the territory didn't want to spend the money.

"Have you seen any signs of damage that's been repaired?" Will asked them. He knew he wouldn't see it, and he thought that would tell them something, too.

"Here and there," Selena said without taking her eyes off the road. She must have heard their surprise in the silence. "What? Some of those buildings only _look_ like they're about to come down. Safer if they do. Nobody tries to loot a building like that. Nobody wonders if there's a bunker underneath."

Will held his breath for a fraction of a second before he asked, "Are there?" He tried to sound curious about it the way he would about an experiment in the lab.

Selena made a humming sound that Will recognized as confirmation. "And someone's been repairing the roads here. They're better than they were an hour back."

Possibly Will should not have been assuming that she was only a Technopath.

"More bunkers than I expected," she said. "Older, too. Maybe bomb shelters?" She sounded like she was hoping that Will would give her extra points for figuring it out.

"Makes sense," Warren said. "As long as there's something to steal up top, nobody's going to dig."

Layla shook her head. "Shelters draw villains because people only build them when they've got something to protect."

"Lose-lose," Will said dryly. "Doing _something_ is better than sitting and waiting."

Warren looked very uncomfortable after Will spoke, so Will tried the radio again. They had tried several times to find news program. The closest they'd come was weather, traffic, and a weird play-by-play of awards at a county fair. Will suspected that real news broadcasts here were more guerrilla affairs with hidden and changing locations.

Or maybe it was all online in some sort of darknet. They'd passed some cell towers, and Selena said they were still working.

Will was a bit surprised not to find any propaganda or any sports, though. He ended up with a channel playing classical that interrupted the music every ten minutes to remind listeners that the channel depended on donations.

"At least some things don't change," Warren said.  
____________

They spent the night in the woods after abandoning their fourth car. Layla made a soft nest and grew food for them. Layla found them water, too, and Warren heated enough that they could drink without worrying about micro-organisms. That didn't make the water clean, but they'd probably be okay. "It would take me a couple of days to set up decent filtration," Layla told them, "and it wouldn't be portable."

It wasn't ideal, but they had no way to pay for a motel even if they could be sure none of them would be recognized. Trying to find a vacant house would be even riskier. None of them were the sort of villains who could casually murder witnesses.

"I wonder if credit cards are still a thing?" Warren had asked as their first stolen car's gas gauge dropped closer to empty.

"I'm pretty sure," Will had said dryly, "that _our_ credit cards aren't still a thing." He could have added that he hadn't had a valid credit card in years, but he thought that might cut a little too close.

Layla had laughed, and they'd stolen another car, one with its tank three quarters full.

Layla's plants kept watch for them all night. In the morning, Will suggested that they fly the rest of the way. "I don't think we're going to see anything new," he said, "not without taking some serious risks. I'd rather get to Caracas as fast as we can. I'm pretty sure the people there will be able to answer some of our questions."

He had to believe that Ethan hadn't lied about the 'help you get your feet under you' part of things. He supposed that the truth of that would decide whether or not Ethan's allies got more than Will's old suppressor. 

Layla looked at Warren who looked thoughtful. 

"You're fast," Warren said. Then he frowned. "I'm not sure we should all go."

"I'm not sure we should separate," Will said. "It's not like we have a good way to track each other." He also wasn't sure how long the trip would actually take. If he went alone, he could get there in under half an hour, even with having to search for the street address. Probably. 

If he carried even one passenger, it would take longer. Layla could probably grow something that would serve as protection against cold and windburn, but Will would still have to fly at lower speeds which would make them more of a target. Will would be fine no matter what hit him, but his passengers wouldn't be so lucky.

Will frowned. "Selena, how hard would it be to armor up a car? You'd all be more comfortable if you can sit, and the weight won't make a difference. Armor would mean better protection against-- Well." He shrugged. He didn't want to be more specific.

Selena had never worked in the field; specifics might frighten her.

Warren looked sideways at Will and moved his head minutely enough that Selena probably didn't notice. He'd heard the words Will hadn't said. "We'll need supplies," he said. "I suppose we can break cover for that since we won't be staying long."

"A car will be easier to follow with radar," Layla stated. "We don't want to lead anyone to our contact, not even just the city."

"It's not a _small_ city," Warren said mildly. "And we're not important enough to draw a lot of attention, not the dangerous kind anyway."

"I'm less willing to 'borrow' a car in Venezuela." Layla's tone of voice indicated that that wasn't a thing she'd change her mind about. Warren started to object, but Layla raised a hand to quiet him. "We don't know enough to do it safely. I'm sure there are people who can afford the loss, but we've been really lucky so far in terms of not getting shot at."

Warren sighed, and Will shook his head. They should have realized that Layla wouldn't soften anything for Selena.

Selena didn't look at all troubled. "I can armor a car and still have it drivable after," she said. "If you can find me a junkyard, I can do anything."  
_______

Will had seriously underestimated how long it would take to find the specific street address once they reached Caracas. He'd remembered that they didn't have credit cards; he'd forgotten that they didn't have cell phones, either. He hadn't had one in years, but Warren and Layla always had GPS access.

Magenta always provided. Unofficially.

They had to ask for directions six times, and Selena used the sleep-ray twice. The address proved to belong to a house painted robin's egg blue that stood halfway up a steep hill lined with houses painted bright pink and orange and green.

Will had to take a few seconds just looking at the building before he could bring himself to walk up to the door and knock. Everyone else stayed down the hill and out of sight. Will was invulnerable; they weren't.

A younger version of Will Stronghold opened the door. The two Wills sized each other up for a long moment before the one standing inside said, "You traveling alone?" He asked the question quietly and in English.

Will shook his head. "We just didn't know what would be here." He eyed his double's navy blue t-shirt and worn jeans. "Civilian identity?" He wondered if the shoulder length red hair was a wig or just a gaudy dye job. The three day beard might or might not be real; he couldn't tell.

The other man looked down at his own clothing. "Not really. None of us will stay here long. We need to finish papers for you all and then move out. This safehouse is burned."

Will hoped that wasn't meant literally. The houses were packed together tightly enough that the whole neighborhood would go up. He didn't ask because he wasn't ready to fight, not right now.

A fight between two versions of Will Stronghold might well take down more than this neighborhood. Will also wasn't at all convinced he'd win. He'd been without his powers for the better part of five years, and he'd lost the reflexes for fighting with controlled superstrength.

He was pretty sure that the red haired Will Stronghold facing him had never stopped fighting and would go for the kill if it came to blows.

Will would hesitate a few seconds too long, so he'd die. He studied the other man, trying to decide how far to trust him, trying to come up with other options. After a moment, Will sighed. "Okay then." He took a red rubber ball out of his pocket and tossed it down the hill. "They'll be along in a minute or two," he said.

The other man nodded and stepped back so that Will could come inside.

"Warren has the device we were asked to deliver," Will said very quietly as he passed the other man. It was a lie. Layla had it. Possibly that might buy them time in case of treachery. Possibly not.

They'd all agreed that people in this world would be more likely to see Warren Peace, even a doppelganger version, as the most dangerous target. Those people would all be wrong.

Even if Will's Layla wasn't as frightening as her counterpart in this universe, she was still pretty terrifying.

The other man nodded.

"Selena's only fifteen," Will said. "She thinks this is an adventure." The weight of what he'd do if this other Will Stronghold made her understand that it wasn't came through in the words.

The other man blinked. "Sure." It sounded sort of like a question.

Will stopped for a moment as a new idea occurred to him. "Oh, hell. You're only seven years older than she is." He considered that for a moment. "She's--" He shook his head. "You're still in range to be a cute boy she meets on vacation."

The other man winced. "You let them in. I'm going to find a wedding ring that fits."

Will watched as the other man went deeper into the house. He smiled. The reaction was more reassuring than any of Ethan's promises.

****

They attended mass at a church dedicated to Santiago and left the suppressor with the priest before they left Caracas. "He'll pass it along," the local Will assured them. "He's got friends who know technology."

Will interpreted that as 'friends who're Technopaths,' but he supposed that, if he was wrong, it wasn't really his problem. He had enough to deal with knowing that they had to change planes and identities at least three times as they journeyed toward the base that the local Will promised would have a lab that Selena could use.

"Most of my allies aren't in the Business," the younger man told them the first night, after they'd all five checked into a hotel. "Getting you to people who are..." He sighed. "It's complicated. And maybe not worth it."

"Not worth it?" Layla's question was sharp enough to flay. It was her 'kill them all now and let God sort them out' voice.

Will winced.

The younger Will stared at her for a moment then looked at Will and Warren and Selena. He ran his fingers through his hair. "You're not helping," he said. There was iron in his voice that Will didn't recognize as something he, personally, had ever had. He fixed his eyes on Layla. "Her parents are out there. Do _you_ want to tell them you're not her?"

Will covered his eyes. He felt tired. "Stronghold," he said, "she hasn't talked to either of them in years. Necessary sacrifices." He rubbed his wrist where the suppressor had been for so long and kind of missed feeling it there. 

He enjoyed having his powers back. It was just that he'd been used to the weight.

"They're not my parents," Layla said flatly.

"Layla," Warren said, "if he takes a swing at you, I can't protect you, and Will won't."

"He's not wrong," Will told her.

Layla made an irritated sound.

"You look enough like her," the local Will said. "I worked more on Warren's disguise because the other one makes the news regularly. The only people who'll recognize you or him--" He jerked his chin toward Will. "--are people we can probably avoid. She's never had her face on the news, and I kind of... I disguise myself when I have to be obvious."

Will thought, for the twelve hundredth time, that he and this other Will were very different people. "Who taught you?" he asked, hoping it was a decent distraction from the previous topic.

The other Will smiled. "Ron Wilson, mostly, and his friends. Jim-- Layla's dad-- too, just later." He shook his head. "Teaching me wasn't a priority for most people, not with my powers. It's not like they require finesse."

Warren laughed softly. He elbowed Will. "From a different angle," he said.

Will nodded. Then he did a double take. "Ron? Is he--? He must be different from our universe's Ron."

The other Will laughed. "Not necessarily. He's really good at seeming harmless. Obnoxious but harmless. He's mostly let the obnoxious part go." His eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked at Will and Warren intently. "Practicality and compassion are a shit-ton more important than powers."

Will considered that for a few seconds. He rubbed his right wrist. "You work with what you have," he said.

"Why did you wear it?" the other Will asked. "I can't imagine putting that thing on my wrist again." He'd put it on once, for a few seconds, to test that it actually worked as advertised.

It had pretty clearly also been a test of what Will, Warren, Layla, and Selena would do when he was helpless.

Will glanced at Warren and Layla.

Layla met Will's eyes with the expression that meant 'this is your bullshit to deal with.'

Warren shrugged and answered for all three of them. "Relationship compromise." He didn't sound as if he expected that to be enough of an explanation, but at least he wasn't trying to offload it all on Will. "I thought it was the emotional clusterfuck to end all clusterfucks until I got the story about how things are here."

Layla deflated a little. "I'm ruthless," she said softly. "I was going to walk away from both of them so I could do what had to be done, but Warren..." She looked away. "Warren guessed. He's... better at making things work than I am. I needed Warren. Warren needed Will. I... I _wanted_ Will, but..."

Will'd known all of that, but it still hurt the same way that thinking about flying had during the years when he couldn't. "I couldn't help them," he said, "not with my powers." He met his doppelganger's eyes and knew that the other man realized that that wasn't the same as not helping them at all. "I couldn't fight them either. Wearing the suppressor meant not forgetting the choice I'd made. I'd have started smashing polluting factories and dismembering dictators eventually. I know me." He sighed. He looked at Warren and managed a smile. "And you really did need me."

Without Will, Flashfire would have become Battlefire. Battlefire would have been cruel just to be cruel because Warren would have excised his compassion as a thing that might hurt Layla. She'd needed Warren's organization and Warren's fire; she hadn't needed Warren.

Will kept both of them human.

Will turned toward the corner where Selena sat. He could tell that she'd been trying not to draw attention to herself. He gave her a different sort of smile. "It's not really secret, just not anything we bother to tell people."

She nodded. She hesitated then said, "But when we go back...?"

Will didn't know, so he glanced at Warren. 

Warren looked as if he had been trying very hard not to think about it. "I can't drug you again," he said. "Would you--? Can you--?"

Will shook his head. "I'd know it was a lie. I'd take it off for smaller and smaller things, and I'd fall into the abyss anyway. All in or all out, no more fence sitting." He knew himself well enough to be sure that he was right.

He just didn't know which direction he was going to go. He was pretty sure no one did.

Layla made a small, unhappy sound. She stood and headed for the bathroom. When the door shut behind her, the lock clicked.

Either version of Will could get through the door in half a second, but neither moved.

Warren looked at the wall. "So... That's a problem."

Nobody had anything else to say. Layla remained in the bathroom for more than half an hour, until Will prompted Selena to beg for access to the toilet. After that, Layla kicked Will, The Other Will, and Warren out of the room so that she and Selena could sleep.

****

Two weeks later, they were all in Switzerland.

Will spent his days in CERN affiliated labs, helping Selena try to reverse engineer whatever she'd done to bring them to this universe. He spent his evenings with Layla and Warren while Selena taught some local Technopaths how to build suppressors. It was the only time the three of them got real privacy because Layla was still sharing a room with Selena.

It was no longer entirely about Selena needing a bodyguard or a chaperone. Selena missed her mother and her friends, and nights were harder because, while she was trying to fall asleep, she had to let go of her distractions.

While Will and Selena were busy, Warren and The Other Will talked tactics and strategy. Warren's views on organizational planning seemed to please The Other Will a great deal, and he introduced Warren to a lot of people from the non-powered side of his network.

Layla looked at history, current events, and the way it was all affecting the natural world and the majority of the population. She came back every evening with a pinched look, and Will could tell that she really wanted to go out and try to fix everything. 

"It's very bad," she told him and Warren one evening. "Not in the same ways as at home. I think-- Nobody's been willing to do what's necessary."

"It's not our world," Will told her. "I don't think you can fight both wars."

"No." She bit her lip. "Are you going to stay?"

It took Will several seconds to understand what she meant. "I hadn't thought about it." Was it even an option? He knew they might all be stuck here forever, but he hadn't thought about choosing to remain when everyone else went back.

"I'd rather lose you that way," she said, "than have you come home and then leave."

"I--" Will swallowed hard. The idea of watching them leave him behind tore at him, but he thought it would be easier than any of his options back home.

That must have shown on Will's face because Warren looked like they'd gutted him. After a moment, Warren said, "If you did, we'd be okay," in a way that told Will that Warren absolutely wouldn't be.

"Maybe we could visit?" Layla looked hopeful. "If we can get here and then back once, we can keep doing it."

Will shrugged. His grasp of quantum physics and alternate dimensions was improving, but he wasn't an expert.

Most of the experts here were still kind of astonished to have evidence that cross-dimensional travel was possible. Half of them were thinking about further research. Half of them were wondering about the possibility of relocating their families and their research to somewhere safer.

Layla put one hand on her belly. "I peed on a stick last week."

Oh. Will's eyes went wide. He took a deep breath. "That changes things."

"And it doesn't," Warren said. He closed his eyes. "You could feel good about fighting here."

Will could, but he wasn't giving up their baby for it. He'd put the suppressor on himself first.

Layla made a choking sound.

Will walked over and put his arm around her shoulder. 

She leaned into his side.

Warren opened his eyes and pinned Layla with a glare. "You _could_."

Oh. The sentence about feeling good hadn't been aimed at Will.

"We have a solid organization," Warren went on. "They could always use more firepower, but really, they need someone who can plan. This world has people who could do the job and who would if we offer the trade."

Will was almost certain that Warren hadn't had this idea ten minutes before. No, more likely, he had; he just hadn't thought he'd need to use it.

Warren always had thirty six different long term plans based on probable events and the fragments of several dozen more based on unlikely changes and sudden needs.

Will considered the possibilities. "I think The Other Will would go. I think he'd actually want to."

"He keeps watching me," Layla said, "and looking sad."

"He knows you're not her," Will told her. He thought that the knowing was less helpful than it could have been because The Other Will also knew that the local Layla could have become the person that Layla was.

The Other Will thought that he'd have backed his Layla in a career of ecoterrorism and violent pursuit of social justice. He might even be right. They wouldn't have had Warren to balance them.

The Other Will also thought that it wouldn't have been an altogether bad thing. He was deeply lonely in a way that came from not belonging anywhere and from having divided loyalties. He hadn't even dated since Homecoming.

"Sometimes, I can't risk trusting them," he'd told Will. "Others, I won't see again." He'd looked away. "Others... I don't want to ask anyone to risk making themselves a target."

"Do you want to ask him?" Will asked Warren. "I don't think it should come from me."

"I think..." Warren turned to Layla. "We start with you asking him about finding you a doctor. Hint that we-- Will and I-- don't know. Let yourself--"

Will interrupted before Warren could say 'be vulnerable' and said, "He knows you're not her, but it also doesn't matter. He failed her, and he can't fix it, not ever. If you ask for something that small and that reasonable, he'll help. Then he'll understand why we'd even consider staying."

Then Warren could suggest the swap and get a fair hearing.

"We'll have to go back for a while," Will added. "Us disappearing for weeks won't have done your organization any good, and we'll have to introduce him to people." Will also wanted to send his parents a letter.

They deserved to know why they were suddenly fighting a Will who was a stranger. Maybe they'd even be willing to move to a new universe, too. It would probably be easier than explaining what had changed to anyone else.

Will put walls around that hope because, if he let it grow wild, its death would hurt too damn much to bear.

But having two flyers would make it much easier to deal with the ticking time bomb that was this universe's Layla. If they stayed, they were going to have to do that.

Layla cleared her throat. "How long do we have?" She looked at Will. "Days, weeks, or months?"

He considered that. "We've got a way to look into other worlds for a few seconds at a time. Crossing isn't possible yet, and we can't tell which worlds are which." He shrugged. "The Technopath side goes in abrupt stages with things just suddenly happening, but Selena's working mostly with non-powered scientists right now. They're... systematic." It was slower going, but Will suspected he'd feel better about relying on the results. "It's good for her, actually."

Selena's experimentation had always been fairly haphazard because tracking details was tedious when she could be making something altogether new and because going into things in depth made her look at the scariest implications of a particular device.

She knew more than she should about how people misused technology. Working with real scientists was teaching her about how science could make things better.

Will had told her that her powers were a tool, that it was always going to be her choices that made the results good or bad. Selena hadn't understood.

If the going back and forth thing was feasible, maybe they could do some sort of exchange program for researchers. Selena wasn't the only young Technopath who needed this sort of help, and there were other things than the suppressors that were new to this dimension. There were even things known here that would be innovations back home.

A few patents in each world would give them a revenue stream that might give them needed leverage. Money was another kind of tool for making-- or destroying-- the future.  
_____

Four weeks in, Selena went home. 

Will found out about it after the fact when he went down to find out why she hadn't come to dinner. He'd taken three days off to make some notes for The Other Will to use when-- if-- he went to Will's home dimension. There were a lot of things that 'everyone knew' that The Other Will simply didn't.

When Will arrived, one of the physicists buttonholed him and started talking loud and fast with a lot of hand gestures. The man talked on and on about the big conceptual breakthrough that Will had missed by 'going on vacation.'

Will nodded along to show that he understood because he had asked to be kept up-to-date.

It sounded like communication and travel between dimensions had turned out to be more complicated than any of them had hoped. It wasn't a only a question of power but also a question of the timing of intersections and sufficiently near passes. 

"More like planning a planetary fly-by than building a bridge," the physicist told Will. "It won't ever be a daily commute, but we should be able to move back and forth at less frequent intervals." The man sounded disappointed.

Will nodded sympathetically. He suspected that there would still be schools and training centers established in other dimensions, but he knew some people had been hoping for suburbs.

Those people hadn't really thought through the problems with secrets too widely known. Suburbs in other dimensions were only going to be safe if the bad guys couldn't get there. If people were planning to commute every day, the secret would last about a day and a half.

Not even long enough for most people to pack up and move.

"Will communication be as limited?" Will asked.

The man wobbled a hand back and forth. "A lot like the interplanetary stuff," he said. "The time lag will vary. Well, we think it will vary. We don't know how to predict that yet. We're not even quite sure about physical crossings, timing-wise. It'll be a lot of trial and error before we know how to calculate it."

Will sighed. "And you need people on both sides to calibrate." He couldn't even make it a question. He was pretty sure he knew what was coming next.

"Ye-es." The man suddenly looked as if he'd realized that Will might be angry.

"Just tell me that Selena didn't go through first." All of three of them should have known better than to leave Selena unsupervised.

"We sent rats through before people. Selena said there are rats over there, so it shouldn't matter if any of them got away."

Will pinched the bridge of his nose. "Did any of them?"

"No! Of course not. It was just that we were careful in case they did. We got them all back from all three target locations. Then we tried people and equipment."

"Selena. Is. 15." Will considered praying for patience.

"She said she was a post-doc. She acted like a post-doc." The words came out as an ass-covering whine.

Will gave the man a completely disbelieving look. "Did she at least go to our world?"

The man licked his lips. "We _think_ so? She told us, after, that her mother almost fainted with joy. Selena has friends doing most of the testing and talking, now, because she had to talk to someone named Magenta about where you all had been."

That sounded more promising than Will had feared. He still wasn't happy with any of the adults involved, including himself.

Selena probably hadn't thought anything about the risks. No, Will realized, she had. There was a reason she hadn't told him or Warren or Layla, hadn't suggested they come with her.

Will would have insisted on going first, and all of Will's students assumed he needed protecting. With the suppressor on, he had needed protecting.

"How long do we have? Before it's not safe to go through physically, I mean."

The physicist shrugged. "Definitely a few hours. The rate of vibrational changes has been pretty consistent. Well, so far. We don't know what affects that yet." He wouldn't meet Will's eyes. "It's probably a good sign that we could re-establish the connection so soon after the four of you came through. The interval to the next connection isn't likely to be longer than the time between then and now."

Will knew that was all guesswork, but he went to get The Other Will and Warren and Layla anyway.

___

Will didn't end up going back at all. Warren did, and so did Layla. Warren ended up staying in the old dimension for almost six months while The Other Will got up to speed on local circumstances.

Layla stayed half that long. That gave her time to find Warren's mother and to deliver messages to her parents and to Will's. 

Warren had been against Layla going because they didn't know what crossing back and forth might do to a fetus. 

Layla said that she doubted three times was a greater risk than the once she'd already done accidentally. So far, according to the obstetrician, everything looked good.

Will went to Layla's prenatal appointments. He went on the missions that The Other Will would normally have done. 

Only a handful of people noticed the change. Those on the superpowered side of things really weren't in the habit of paying attention to Will Stronghold. Wayside-- Will's other new, local allies-- tended to pay more attention. Some of them paid attention the way they would to any weapon of mass destruction that was sitting in a corner, collecting dust, but Ron Wilson noticed, and so did Jim Williams, Layla's father.

Will told Ron the truth. He told Jim that he'd been ambushed by a villain with a time warp power but that that villain wasn't going to be a problem again. He thought that story would hold for a while, long enough for Layla to make some decisions.

Well, really, long enough for Warren to come back and manipulate Layla into making decisions. Will wasn't nearly as good at maneuvering Layla into metaphorical corners. Physical ones, he could manage, and they all had fun with that. The metaphorical ones, though... Layla always saw Will coming.

The Magenta in their home universe had taken on part of the responsibility for helping The Other Will long term. "He's like your adorable little brother!" she told Will. "He's family."

Will could only assume that she hadn't yet seen the killer in his doppelganger's eyes. The Other Will hid that part of himself pretty well, but Magenta would notice eventually. Will doubted that that would come under the heading of 'adorable.'

Then again, Magenta looked at things from a weird angle. She thought that Warren growing a beard was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. 

Something about mirror universes that The Other Will thought was funny. "At least you'll know which is which," The Other Will commented when he stopped laughing.

"That is the idea." Warren sounded entirely unamused. "I don't want Warren Williams getting mistaken for Warren Battle on the streets, and fake beards are flammable."

The Other Will and Magenta both started laughing again. They didn't manage to get it under control before the call ended.

Maybe Magenta and The Other Will had enough in common to get past the murdery bits of other Will's personality.

Neither The Other Will nor Magenta knew that Warren was also planning to get tattoos somewhere reliably covered by clothing, one Will had designed and one Layla had designed, with Warren choosing which went where. The other Will and Magenta didn't need to know.

Will was betting that Warren would put one on each foot; Layla put her money on Warren's ass coming home with artwork.

It'd be a nice dinner out for the three of them, no matter who picked the restaurant. Maybe they'd let Warren chose.

Will, Warren, and Layla agreed to wait to find out the sex of the baby until Warren was back with them. At that point, Layla said that they might as well keep waiting. "It's not as if it's going to be that much longer." She glared at Warren as she massaged her lower back. "You cut it kind of close."

Warren looked at Will who shrugged.

Will didn't plan to bail Warren out on this one. He and Layla had been off balance with Warren gone, and the pregnancy had shifted more of the relationship work onto Will than any of them had expected.

"Backrubs still work," Layla said when it was clear that neither Will nor Warren had a response. She shifted on the couch so that Warren could get behind her.

Warren gave a huff of laughter then started to work.

"You'll need to stay with her," Will said. "They're still asking me to run missions."

Warren nodded. "I took the class. What? I didn't have to leave the base for it. That meant I didn't have to explain why my partner wasn't with me."

Layla started to laugh. She leaned back against Warren.

Will sat on the other end of the couch with Layla's feet in his lap. "Very practical." He managed to keep a straight face until after Warren lobbed a pillow at him.

All three of them together was right. All three of them working together was going to be even better.


End file.
